


Holiday Spirit

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [67]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 03:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16966428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: The Hitmen go off on the holiday break almost a full week before the Flames do, but before that happens, Jared once again has to endure the Teddy Bear Toss.





	Holiday Spirit

Jared’s never been the most Christmassy guy — never been the most any holiday guy, honestly, his interest in things tends to flag in direct proportion to how mandatory participation is — but he finds himself getting kind of into it this year. Some of that is him looking forward to going to Vancouver, because yeah, he’s going to have to meet Bryce’s grandparents, but he’s only medium stressed about that, and mostly it’ll just be him and Bryce and Elaine. Matheson Christmases tend to involve a truly ridiculous amount of extended family, so it’ll be nice to have something kind of chill, even if he’s been conscripted into before and after stuff.

Nothing can make Christmas shopping bearable, but he does a targeted strike of the mall and gets out within an hour, which is a new record. He kind of splurges on his mom and dad, like, at least compared to usual — obviously compared to usual, this is literally the first year his mom hasn’t given him the money to buy them presents, spending _any_ money is splurging, comparatively. More than he’d usually be comfortable spending, but the money that’s in his bank account right now, it wouldn’t be there if they hadn’t supported him since he was like, five and determined to be the best damn goalie house-league had ever seen. Obviously the goalie thing didn’t stick, but still. 

Erin gets a hundred dollar gift card to her ridiculous store, plus like, probably eternal rights to Jared’s TV, so that’s gift enough. Bryce he gets a sweater soft enough his fingers almost sink into it — he’s selfish and it’s going to make putting his head on Bryce’s chest _awesome_ — a print of Van Gogh’s sunflowers to go in the kitchen, so it’ll look like Elaine’s, since Bryce talked about it all fondly. It isn’t like, super pretty or anything, but Jared _is_ capable of compromise. Sometimes. 

He really needs to stop hiding the blue Gatorade. New Year’s Resolution.

*

The Hitmen go off on the holiday break almost a full week before the Flames do, but before that happens, Jared once again has to endure the Teddy Bear Toss.

“How do you not like it?” Sam says, all disapproving of him. What does he know, he’s a rookie. He’s never endured.

“It takes forever to clean off the ice,” Jared says. “And then you get cold, and the next shift is like hell without a warm-up.”

“But,” Sam says. “It’s for _kids_.” 

_You’re a kid_ , Jared doesn’t say. It sounds stupid when you’re only a year older than someone. He just hopes their first goal’s early enough for it not to screw them that bad. Or like, a buzzer beater. That’d be pretty cool, escaping to the locker room rather than skating around awkwardly forever.

It’s not a buzzer beater, but it’s late enough in the first that Jared will only have to deal with another shift or two max. A dish from Jared to Gregory goes straight into the back of the net, and the teddy bears start hitting the ice almost as fast as the ref signals it’s a goal.

Jared skates off to the bench immediately after the celly, just to avoid getting brained by a stuffed animal. It’s happened before, and it doesn’t hurt or anything, it’s just — the indignity of it all. Attacked by a teddy bear. At least this time the teddy bears are for his team. It’s already bad enough to get scored on, getting pelted with stuffed animals by gleeful Edmontonians afterwards is salt in the wound.

They lose, which sucks — always sucks, but there are a ton of kids in the crowd for the toss, and it hasn’t been that long since Jared went to those games with his dad, clutching at a teddy bear, a little reluctant to throw it away, even though he didn’t really have stuffed animals himself. Erin would, as often as not, refuse to throw hers, want to keep it, to the point where they’d bring an extra one. Jared doesn’t want to let the little hockey fans down, but they can’t win them all, he guesses, even though they’ve been doing their damnedest lately, succeeding more often than not.

He checks his phone to see if he’s got something from his dad, wouldn’t be surprised if he brought Erin and his mom this time, because it’s a bit of a tradition, but he’s got one from Chaz instead, _yo me n bj are at the game steel urself or whatever_.

Jared has like, two seconds to blink at it before the meaning is made very clear, because half the team is swarming Chaz, and the other half is looking all star-struck at Bryce.

Jared has no fucking clue how Chaz talked Bryce into this.

He sticks to undressing, because he doesn’t know if Bryce wants to avoid him — though if he does, he picked the wrong fucking room for it — 

“I sit two stalls away from yours,” Bryce says, and Jared looks up.

“Do you,” Jared says.

“Nice to see you again, Matheson,” Bryce says, and it is very hard not to smirk, but Jared does his best. Like, yeah, _nice to see you since this morning, see you at home in an hour_. Fucking dork.

“You too,” he says. “Marcus.”

Bryce’s neutral expression drops for a second, the corner of his mouth twitching up, and it’s all Jared can do not to grin back.

He gets whisked away by his fan club pretty quick, which seems to consist of most of the roster, including Sam. Jared thought Sam was a Jets fan, but if he is, he’s not a very loyal one, because he’s fanboying _so hard_.

“You know Bryce Marcus?” Sam asks after, all breathless.

Jared works very, very hard to keep his face neutral. “He helped coach at a camp I went to a couple summers back,” Jared says. 

“Oh man, you must have learned so much,” Sam says.

“He kind of sucks as a coach, actually,” Jared says. Well, that’s not true. When it’s one-on-one he’s pretty great, but obviously Jared’s not saying that aloud. Plus he’s pretty sure those sessions are only open to him.

His phone buzzes, and he opens it to a text from Bryce, _see u at home_ , alongside a smiley, and Jared looks up to see Bryce standing beside Chaz, slipping his phone back in his pocket.

Fucking _dork_.

“That your boyfriend or something?” Sam asks, low.

“Pardon me?” Jared asks.

“That just texted,” Sam says.

Jared has way less control of his face than he thought, apparently.

“Oh,” Jared says. “Um, yeah.”

“Cool,” Sam says, doing kind of a bobblehead nod, then, “My um. Sister has a girlfriend.”

“Cool,” Jared says.

“My parents don’t really—” Sam says, looking uncomfortable, and Jared suddenly gets the trying very hard to be cool about things. Good kid.

Stop calling people a year younger than you children, Jared.

“Sorry,” Jared says. “She’s got you, though.”

“Yeah,” Sam says, brightening up a bit. “Yeah.”

Jared gives him a shoulder knock for that one, goes to shower, because his dad’s texted that he’s waiting. Chaz is still there when he gets out, talking to Gregory, but Bryce isn’t, which is fine. He’ll see him at home.

Jared briefly meets with his family — all three, as expected — before heading home, and Bryce is already there, along with another infiltrator. Winnie the Pooh, who’s been chilling on an arm chair that’s never used except when Elaine visits, suddenly has a buddy.

“Why are the stuffed animals multiplying?” Jared asks, eyeing the Eeyore.

“I mean, Chaz and I went like, shopping for teddy bears,” Bryce says, then, mumbling, “I thought Pooh would want some company, so.”

“Aww, does he, Pooh Bear?” Jared asks. “Wait, hey, am _I_ the Eeyore in this? Bullshit, I’m like, Owl or something.”

“You’re the one who got yourself an Eeyore mug,” Bryce says. “And use it like, every morning.”

Look, Eeyore’s right about mornings, okay? They suck right up until Jared has coffee in that mug.

“So you’re Eeyore,” Bryce says.

“Your mom’s Eeyore,” Jared says.

“No, she’s Kanga,” Bryce says like, immediately, not even hesitating, or appearing to give a shit that his Winnie the Pooh knowledge is ridiculous, and Jared has to laugh, kiss him for that one.

*

The next morning, retrieving his Eeyore mug for a breakfast alone — Bryce left obscenely early for some morning radio interview — Jared learns Bryce has also added Winnie the Pooh to their mug collection. Considering they’re mostly like, bland off-white ceramic and a ridiculous amount of Flames travel mugs Jared is pretty sure Bryce just keeps stealing from the Saddledome and never bringing back, it brightens things up at least.

Jared hopes Chaz gave Bryce so much shit for dragging him around the Disney Store.

Jared sips his coffee and scrolls through his phone while he waits for toast to pop. Bryce’s name is trending on twitter, which Jared would usually be wary of unless he had at least a three point night, but apparently someone got a picture of him with a teddy bear that’s like, half the size of him. Chaz, who doesn’t even get mentioned even though he’s right beside him — Jared’s offended on his behalf — appears to be juggling like, half a dozen teddy bears of his own. One of them looks suspiciously like Piglet.

Oh great, Chaz _enabled_ him.

By the time Jared’s out of practice, the Hitmen have picked it up, along with some pictures of Bryce and Chaz and the guys — they, at least, acknowledge Chaz’s existence, because former captain — and the Calgary Flames end up reposting the picture on Instagram, and then it quickly becomes this whole thing.

Jared ends up scrolling down through the comments during a dinner alone — Bryce is probably getting the pregame speech right now — which is a mistake. There are a truly alarming number of comments that seem to believe like, Bryce is reading them? And uh. There are a lot of explicit offers made just in case he is, which seems like an odd thing to pin your hopes on.

Though like, Bryce reading the comments isn’t outside of the realm of experience, Jared guesses, considering here he is right now, reading the comments about Bryce. Jared just doesn’t think Bryce would be picking a girlfriend from random offers to do whatever he wants to them on a freaking public forum, even if he was actually straight. 

Jared doesn’t know how to feel about it. Like, obviously he knows people think Bryce is hot. Bryce is _crazy_ hot, of course Jared’s not the only person to see it. It’s just — he doesn’t _know_ any of these people, and they don’t know him. It’s weird. Jared gets having a celebrity crush or whatever — though it’s weird to think of Bryce as a celebrity, in Calgary he absolutely is — but Jared like, makes sure to watch Sebastian Stan’s movies, doesn’t like, send him a public offer to suck his _dick_ , what the hell.

He feels torn between kind of sad for them and like, vaguely ruffled. Like, obviously they don’t know he has a boyfriend, but still: rude. Plus like, of all the pictures, you’re going to go with the one where he’s cuddling a teddy bear?

Except he ends up going to Bryce’s instagram, and like, they’re not just going with the teddy bear picture. Every single snap is completely littered with offers, including a picture of him with _Elaine_ he put up on Mother’s Day. It’s gross. He hopes Elaine didn’t read the comments.

Bryce is annoyingly blase about it when Jared mentions it, all ‘yeah, I don’t really read that shit, it’s weird’, but not like he actually thinks it’s _weird_ weird? Like, a kind of weird he’s clearly used to.

He ends up complaining to Chaz over brunch. Did he invite Chaz over for brunch just to complain? Mostly yes, but also Bryce keeps dashing off Christmas shopping and it’s annoying. Jared is dimly afraid of how many presents Bryce has bought him.

“I’m probably being ridiculous,” Jared says. “But.”

“Nah, Ashley’s said the same thing,” Chaz says. “Like, I’ll post a picture with her and girls will literally be like ‘dump her and date me, Chaz’, ‘bet I’m better than her’. I think I get more pissed about it than she does. Like, it definitely annoys Ash, but it pisses me the fuck off, like, how little respect they show her. It’s fucked up.”

“You get that shit?” Jared asks dubiously.

“Hey!” Chaz says. “Fuck you, I totally get that shit. If you actually had an insta you’d get that shit guaranteed.” 

Jared shrugs. “Doubt it,” he says.

“Dude,” Chaz says. “I’m not even going to bother to no homo this shit. You’re a good looking guy and you’re going to have to get used to this before you hit the NHL, because I guarantee you’ll get it when you do hit it. And Edmonton’s not exactly a small market, you’re going to get this shit a _lot_.”

“Okay,” Jared says, still dubious.

“Oh man, do not come crying to me the first time a girl comes up to you and offers to suck your dick in the bathroom, no strings,” Chaz says, kind of darkly, like he’s speaking from experience. “And then when you tell her you have a girlfriend, legit says ‘I won’t tell her if you don’t’.”

“Someone _did_ that?” Jared blanches.

“You sweet, innocent thing,” Chaz says, and then ruins Jared’s hair, laughing when Jared, scowling, tries to fix it.

“I’m not going to tell someone I have a girlfriend,” Jared says.

“It was a _metaphor_ , Matheson,” Chaz says.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure it was an anecdote,” Jared says.

“Oh my god, you’re such a _dork_ ,” Chaz says.

“Hey,” Jared says. He is not the dork here. That’d be the guy slowly infiltrating their apartment with Winnie the Pooh shit.

“I thought it was cute,” Chaz says, when Jared expresses that, and it’s not like Jared _doesn’t_ , but Bryce is still the dork. “Nerd, then.”

“I’ll accept that,” Jared says. “Though he’s like, a hockey nerd.”

“Seriously,” Chaz says. “I think he legit knows more about tactics than Coach Burns.”

“Right?” Jared says. “It’s kind of eerie, he picks shit up about my game I don’t.”

“I kinda noticed that,” Chaz says, and Jared’s not sure if that’s like, a dig at Jared’s self-awareness or if Bryce has been talking about Jared’s game with Chaz, which is — kind of weird but kind of nice? Like, Chaz knows more about it than almost anyone, after playing with him for a season, and there’s Bryce’s uncanny thing, and it’s just — nice. He doesn’t know. Nice to think about them talking about him when he’s not around, because he knows it’s not bad stuff they’re saying.

Bryce lumbers in with a truly ridiculous amount of shopping bags. “Those better not be for me,” Jared says.

“My mom,” Bryce says, then, “Why’s Chaz here?”

“Chaz has ears,” Chaz says. “And feelings.”

“Not a bad thing or anything,” Bryce says, then, “Ooh, croissants.”

“Yeah, I brought them,” Chaz says. “Jared won’t eat them, so go ahead.”

“They’re not in my diet,” Jared says. Not in Bryce’s either, but he’s not saying shit, and definitely not in front of Chaz.

“He apparently invited me over to bitch about how hot everyone thinks you are,” Chaz says.

“I did not,” Jared mutters.

“Aww,” Bryce says, through a mouthful of croissant, which is gross. “You’re jealous.”

“Finishing chewing before you talk, god,” Jared says. “I don’t know why anyone thinks you’re hot.”

“Yes you do,” Bryce says, after swallowing. 

Yes he does. Dammit.

“Chaz, distract Jared for a minute?” Bryce says.

“Why?” Jared asks, over Chaz’s, “It doesn’t work if he _knows_ he’s being distracted.”

“You can grab him too, you’re stronger than him,” Bryce says. “I’ve got to hide the presents.”

“Hey!” Jared says, because Chaz is _not_ stronger than him, then, “You said none of them were for me!”

“I lied!” Bryce calls back.

“You’ve got something on your face,” Chaz says, through a croissant of his own. Flames have no table manners.

Jared swipes at his mouth.

“Shit eating grin’s still there,” Chaz says, and laughs when Jared replaces it with a scowl in his direction.


End file.
